Understanding Speech, Understanding Speakers

Abstract

A suitable introduction to the problems of understanding language is the report of the child psychologist Meumann, which we have already mentioned briefly in Chapter 3. The father with his small boy in his arms goes to the window and asks—in German—“Where is the window?” The child points to the window and says, “Da!” (there!). Meumann senior then asks: “Où est la fenêtre?” and then in English, “Where is the window?” Both times the child points to the window and says, “Da!” And when the father finally asks (again in German), “Where is the door?” the child points to the window again and says, “Da!”

It is thus important for the understanding of the existence and development of language to state clearly which factors and processes make it possible for us to understand language at all, and to investigate in what way these factors gain significance for the formation of language.

P. Wegener

Our capacity to endow language with meaning must be recognized as a particular instance of our sense-giving powers. We must realize that to use language is a performance of the same kind as our integration of visual clues for perceiving an object, or as the viewing of a stereo picture, or our integration of muscular contractions in walking or driving a motor car, or as the conducting of a game of chess—all of which are performed by relying on our subsidiary awareness of some things for the purpose of attending focally to a matter on which they bear. These are exercises of an integrative power which can comprehend a triad in which the person A sees a B as bearing on a C, or else uses a B for the purpose C, and these integrations can be seen to be essentially tacit.

M. Polanyi

Understanding is the inward sign of the potential for reacting appropriately to what we see or hear.

J. Deese